Santander 123: Anyone had problems getting money out?

gterr

Hi there,
I have two Santander 123 current accounts (for the savings interest). I've recently been trying to move some money out of one of them. I attempted to make three payments (to payees already set up) on Friday. Two of the payments went straight away by Faster Payments. The third was debited from my Santander account but has failed to show up in the payee's account. (Payee is my husband, so easy to check.)


Santander say a payment has been delayed because it was flagged up for extra security checks. They were unable/unwilling to give further details, but said the payment would probably complete by the end of Friday, and if not the money would be returned to my Santander account to avoid loss of interest.


Nothing has happened: as of this morning the money has still been debited from my account, and not recredited, but there's no sign of it arriving in husband's account. It's not a huge sum of money - just over £3000 - but we wanted to use it to fund purchases in his S&S Isa whilst the FTSE's at a 3 month low. Looks like we've been thwarted in that.


Sent another secure message to Santander first thing this morning, but nothing back from them yet.


I appreciate that sometimes anti-fraud measures can hold up transactions, but does anyone have any ideas what kind of things trigger this (so that I can avoid it in the future)? Was it doing three payments one after another? Something else? Just random?

In_For_A_Penny_2

This is standard security procedure particularly if you try to transfer a small amount followed by a larger amount to a payee that you have not used before (a tactic commonly used by fraudsters).

Usually a bank will phone you to verify this was your intention.

Might be worth checking your contact details are up to date if Santander haven't phoned you directly.

EDIT - the other thing to be aware off is that they occasionally will block your account until you verify any odd looking transactions - just in case you go to do your weeks shopping and realise you can't pay at the end!

bsms1147

Faster Payment will reach the target account by the end of the next working day, so by the end of today.

gterr

In_For_A_Penny wrote: »

This is standard security procedure particularly if you try to transfer a small amount followed by a larger amount to a payee that you have not used before (a tactic commonly used by fraudsters).

Usually a bank will phone you to verify this was your intention.

Might be worth checking your contact details are up to date if Santander haven't phoned you directly.

EDIT - the other thing to be aware off is that they occasionally will block your account until you verify any odd looking transactions - just in case you go to do your weeks shopping and realise you can't pay at the end!

Thanks. Both payees had been used before. One is my RBS account, the other my husband's RBS account. The three payments last Friday were two to my account (which went through immediately) and one to husband's account. Santander did phone at mid day on Friday, in response to my secure message, and I passed the security questions with them. I was told I needed to do nothing and it would sort itself out, within a few hours. I'll phone them this afternoon if I've not had a reply to my secure message.

Onawingandaprayer

Never had a problem between mine and my wife's ac. Money zinging back and forth on a regular basis.

In_For_A_Penny_2

gterr wrote: »

Thanks. Both payees had been used before. One is my RBS account, the other my husband's RBS account. The three payments last Friday were two to my account (which went through immediately) and one to husband's account. Santander did phone at mid day on Friday, in response to my secure message, and I passed the security questions with them. I was told I needed to do nothing and it would sort itself out, within a few hours. I'll phone them this afternoon if I've not had a reply to my secure message.

Agree - it is odd. I think a lot of the security systems are automated - so a certain number of transactions in a certain period may trigger something. Hope you get it sorted soon.

eskbanker

Santander do seem to hold payments more regularly than most, judging by the number of threads that are posted on here along similar lines - here's one from yesterday for example: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035978

Archi_Bald

Haven't seen any post yet that said Santander are missing the legal "end of next business day" deadline.

mgarl10024

I've had this. Usually when I make a number of larger payments that normal.

My personal favourite is when having gone through security, Santander say that you "may" need to put the payment through again. *sigh*

gterr

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Haven't seen any post yet that said Santander are missing the legal "end of next business day" deadline.

That's very true. I would have been entirely satisfied with the explanation that a wait of two working days might occur, had the customer service agent not phoned me to assure me that either the payment would be made that day (last Friday) or the money would be returned to my account so that no interest was lost. Neither of these has happened. I'll wait until tomorrow and take it further if necessary.

VT82

gterr wrote: »

The customer service agent phoned me to assure me that either the payment would be made that day (last Friday) or the money would be returned to my account so that no interest was lost.

I think they back-date the transaction once the fraud checking is completed, so that you don't lose the day's interest. I.e. there'll be a transaction showing the refund back into your account for value date of the day you tried to send it originally.

That's what happened with mine. And yep, Santander are the only culprits out of all my many current account banks that seem to withold transactions willy-nilly.